What is DMI Pool Data and why is it verified?
DMI stands for Desktop Management Interface. It is a way of storing information about your system. Its main use is for corporations to manage and track PCs they have purchased. Some OEMs also use DMI tables to store information used preactivate Windows installations. That is why you can reinstall the OS on a Dell or HP without getting the nag about activating within 60 days. DMI has been superseded by a newer standard called CIM.
Beyond that its of no value to home users. As other's have mentioned, reseting the BIOS will usually make this message go away.
It could also mean, that your mainboard is having some trouble reading from the hard drive. I had a similar problem when I had a USB stick attached and it wanted to boot/read from there first. Well and running a Microsoft Preview is always very likely to be unstable ;) I found some other hints on a German forum entry which may help you, too even though it is only when the bootup freezes at the DMI pool verifying:
- Reset Bios settings
- After hardware installation: Set "Force Update ESCD" or "Reset Configuration Data" to enabled
- Broken IDE / SATA cable
- Broken master boot record (MBR): Run fdisk /mbr and sys c: from a bootup terminal
- Bad hardware, including BIOS chip
- Virus